Re: The Romanized Orthography of My Conlang
| From: | Thomas R. Wier <artabanos@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, October 10, 1999, 19:41 |
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FFlores wrote:
> > This is my first message to the list, so I'd like to
> > share with you the Romanized orthography of my conlang,
> > Katabala, as an attached MSWord document. Those of you
> > who want to see it that don't have MSWord should contact me.
>
> Welcome to the list. It's glad to see new members!
Ditto for me. Welcome!
> Anyway, I have Word and I saw the
> orthography. Quite readable... but why is there no "p"? :)
More importantly, why is there no /p/, but there *is* an /f/?
Austin, right now, your consonant inventory looks like this:
lab den alv pal vel
vcl stops t k
vcd stops g
vcl fric f th s x
vcd fric zh
vcl aff ch
vcd aff j
There are a few problems with this, if you're attempting to
achieve a naturalistic effect in a language (of course, if you're
not, you can just ignore the rest of this).
First, language sounds tend to be organized in groups. That is,
when a language has one sound in one type of category (say,
voiceless stops, consonants that completely stop the airflow and
where the vocal chords aren't vibrating at the same time), it will
tend to have all or most of the other sounds in that category. So,
if your language has /t/ and /k/, it's more likely to have a /p/ too.
But that in itself is not the clincher: you could just say that your
language doesn't have labial sounds (like /p/); though rare, two
languages I'm studying in class now, Atkan Aleut and Onandaga,
both lack labial consonants (more or less). The thing is, though,
your phonology here also has an /f/, a labial fricative (a sound which
allows "frication" or rustling of the air), and so if you're going to
say your language lacks labial consonants, you'll need to be
consistent about it.
The same general principle applies to the voiced consonants you
have (<g>, <zh>, and <j>). In each case, you have a single consonant
in a category, which is statistically unlikely as natural language
change
goes.
I don't want to go into any more detail about this... it could get
*really* long, so if you're interested in any of this, I'd suggest
visiting
Mark Rosenfelder's Language Construction kit at:
<http://www.zompist.com/kit.html>
Remember: all of these comments are just suggestions. If you
like your language the way it is, that's fine; more power to you.
=======================================================
Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
ICQ#: 4315704 AIM: Deuterotom
Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."
Denn wo Begriffe fehlen,
Da stellt ein Wort zur rechten Zeit sich ein.
-- Mephistopheles, in Goethe's _Faust_
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FFlores wrote:
<blockquote TYPE=CITE>> This is my first message to the list, so I'd like
to
<br>> share with you the Romanized orthography of my conlang,
<br>> Katabala, as an attached MSWord document. Those of you
<br>> who want to see it that don't have MSWord should contact me.
<p>Welcome to the list. It's glad to see new members!</blockquote>
Ditto for me. Welcome!
<blockquote TYPE=CITE>Anyway, I have Word and I saw the
<br>orthography. Quite readable... but why is there no "p"? :)</blockquote>
More importantly, why is there no /p/, but there *is* an /f/?
<br>Austin, right now, your consonant inventory looks like this:
<br>
lab den alv pal vel
<br>vcl stops
t
k
<br>vcd
stops
g
<br>vcl fric f th
s
x
<br>vcd
fric
zh
<br>vcl
aff
ch
<br>vcd
aff
j
<p>There are a few problems with this, if you're attempting to
<br>achieve a naturalistic effect in a language (of course, if you're
<br>not, you can just ignore the rest of this).
<p>First, language sounds tend to be organized in groups. That is,
<br>when a language has one sound in one type of category (say,
<br>voiceless stops, consonants that completely stop the airflow and
<br>where the vocal chords aren't vibrating at the same time), it will
<br>tend to have all or most of the other sounds in that category. So,
<br>if your language has /t/ and /k/, it's more likely to have a /p/ too.
<br>But that in itself is not the clincher: you could just say that
your
<br>language doesn't have labial sounds (like /p/); though rare, two
<br>languages I'm studying in class now, Atkan Aleut and Onandaga,
<br>both lack labial consonants (more or less). The thing is, though,
<br>your phonology here also has an /f/, a labial fricative (a sound which
<br>allows "frication" or rustling of the air), and so if you're going
to
<br>say your language lacks labial consonants, you'll need to be
<br>consistent about it.
<p>The same general principle applies to the voiced consonants you
<br>have (<g>, <zh>, and <j>). In each case, you have a
single consonant
<br>in a category, which is statistically unlikely as natural language
change
<br>goes.
<p>I don't want to go into any more detail about this... it could get
<br>*really* long, so if you're interested in any of this, I'd suggest
visiting
<br>Mark Rosenfelder's Language Construction kit at:
<p><<a href="http://www.zompist.com/kit.html">http://www.zompist.com/kit.html><br>
</a>
<br>Remember: all of these comments are just suggestions. If
you
<br>like your language the way it is, that's fine; more power to you.
<p>=======================================================
<br>Tom Wier <artabanos@mail.utexas.edu>
<br>ICQ#: 4315704 AIM: Deuterotom
<br>Website: <<A
HREF="http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/">http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/</A>>
<br>"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."
<p>Denn wo Begriffe fehlen,
<br>Da stellt ein Wort zur rechten Zeit sich ein.
<br> -- Mephistopheles, in Goethe's _Faust_
<br>========================================================
<br> </html>
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